The uproar surrounding David Ortiz‘s selfie with President Obama taps into a couple strains of idiocy running rampant today: 1) Lazy journalism; and 2) Hatred of the Red Sox. Unfortunately, the first strain feeds into the second because editors know that many Americans outside of New England hate the Red Sox, so stories that bash the franchise are promoted despite their poor quality. Who needs honesty when you have advertising revenue generating clickbait?
And honesty was sorely lacking in the ABC News piece which started the controversy, starting with headline: “Why ‘Big Papi’ Got Paid to Take Selfie With President Obama.” Such a headline accuses Ortiz of wrongdoing by not disclosing an endorsement deal wherein he was offered payment to get a selfie with the President. A journalist should have solid evidence behind this accusation before an editor agrees to publish it. So what evidence did ABC News offer? A statement from a Samsung spokesman saying that they had a “relationship” with David Ortiz – that’s not confirmation that Ortiz was paid for his selfie.
David Ortiz is a superstar professional athlete who’s highly sought after by companies looking for professional athletes to endorse their products. Along with Samsung, Ortiz currently has a “relationship” with MTV; in the past, he’s had “relationships” with Reebok, Vitaminwater, New Era Cap, Easton, plus a restaurant and line of hot sauce carrying his name. To assume that Ortiz got paid to take a selfie with the President because he has a relationship with Samsung means that all of these other companies must have paid him for the selfie too, according to the “logic” of ABC News.
Let’s extend their “logic” further. ABC is the parent company to ESPN, the supposed “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” ESPN likes sports stories about superstar athletes, especially ambiguous stories that portray a negative tone, because such stories drive up ratings and help keep billions in advertising revenue flowing in. Since ABC and ESPN have a “relationship,” it’s easy to see where ABC just helped out ESPN. Now I don’t have evidence to prove my accusations are correct, but who needs proof when you have clickbait? Evidence is just for silly people, there’s money to be made here!
Since this story is about the face of a franchise that sports fans outside of New England love to hate, there’s a lot of money to be made here. Why talk about what’s actually happening on the field when you can bash the Boston Red Sox? Bashing the Sox is always a winning topic, and the media will let anyone who bashes the Sox have a voice. How else would a washed up A-ball pitcher in the Cardinals organization receive a national platform if he didn’t accuse the Red Sox of cheating in the World Series? Why else would anyone pay attention to Dirk Hayhurst when he accused Clay Buchholz of cheating? If charges of cheating were leveled against players on teams that are less successful than the Red Sox, those stories would fizzle out. Nobody cares. But when someone accuses a Red Sox player of nefarious deeds, then unlatch the flood gates and let the idiotic hate flow.
That’s how myths are created. Why pay attention to what’s happening on the field? Nobody cares that Justin Smoak just had a career series against the Angels, and this could be his coming out year as a star, because he plays for the Mariners. That’s not ratings worthy. But spreading lies and hate? That’s always worth its weight in gold.
[Correction: I accidentally listed Justin Smoak’s team as the Marines. Although Smoak is over six feet tall, weighs in at 230 lbs of mostly muscle, and he probably could be in the Marines, he’s actually a member of Seattle Mariners.]
photo credit: getty images
